I’ve owned two Cub Cadet Challengers – 2016 700 and 2017 750
Neither runs out properly – the 700 would usually not shift into Reverse or Low without a battle and about 10% of the time would go in halfway & then grind gears terribly. In Low it would start out in High and drop down to Low with a loud crash.
It was back & forth to the dealer’s shop 2 months out of 10 trying to fix it and when he completely stripped it down to replace the transmission main shaft and declared it fixed – it ran less than 10 minutes before coming to a smoking stop. After that Cub decided to give us a new one rather than pay dealer to keep giving him parts to fix it.
So we paid to upgrade to the 2017 750 which is a huge improvement. BUT it has the same trans problem, lots of gear grinding PLUS it kills a LOT, hard to drive when cold.
We had dealer (try to) install EPS on the 750 but they screwed it up so bad it was delivered dangerous to drive. After a battle they took it off and we don’t miss it - one less thing for them to (never) fix.
Took the 750 to my dealer who couldn’t fix that shifter either or the motor stalling – he replaced the O2 sensor and installed a throttle body off another machine – that didn’t fix anything so he decided to solve the problem by telling me to buy a Polaris cause he isn’t going to work on it ever again and I’m not welcome in his shop. – Black Hills Power Sports Hill City / Rapid City, SD.
Both machines are good snow plows with dealer supplied 5’ Denali plow.